Podcast #14: Doing the work of the devil? Dealing with people who don’t accept our intuitive gifts

Today’s podcast talks about what it feels like when others tell you that you are doing “the work of the devil” by listening to your inner voice and those of your team of Guides and Teachers in Spirit. I have some strong feelings about it born of experience and hope I can shed some light on the subject.

Podcast Transcript

My focus, not only on this podcast but on my site as well, is to share ideas, thoughts, and tools on how to make your natural intuitive skills work for you. There’s no big mystery or special skills needed. Just a bit of consciousness and intention is a great place to start.

Today’s topic is all about friends, relatives and even random strangers who work themselves into a frenzy over your choice of spiritual path thinking that you are damning your soul to hell for all eternity. Have you run into this yet? If you haven’t, either you’ve been lucky or your time is coming!

This topic was inspired by one of my intuitive buddies, Frances, who got snarled up in that situation earlier this week and posted about it on Facebook. She was hurt and confused and angry because a relative was quite vocal about her feelings and not in a respectful way, either.

So, let me share my story a bit and tell you what I think this is about – but I also invite you to look at the situation in your own life where this has shown up and see what’s true for you. Don’t take my word as the be-all, end-all. It’s just my perspective. (And you’ll see that I feel pretty strongly about this, too.)

While I’ve always been intuitive, this ability didn’t show up big time until ten years or so ago as I became more and more drawn to Reiki and metaphysics in general. I took classes and courses and lived and breathed it because it was so gloriously new. Although I’ve been raised in the Catholic tradition, I fell away from that early on but my older cousin and the mother of my goddaughter was a very devout Catholic. When I showed my interest in these things, she shared several books discussing Catholic doctrine which discourages delving into the metaphysical to offer me “the right path.”

I was very hurt because to my mind, what I was doing was of the Light and how could she think otherwise? My aunt’s friend happened upon my blog where I was talking about automatic writing and sent an emergency message to my cousin saying that I would unduly sway my goddaughter away from Catholicism. I was terrified that my cousin would forbid me from seeing my goddaughter and was so hurt that anyone would think I was 1) doing something evil and 2) I would even think of subverting my goddaughter’s faith.

As you can imagine, a lot of misunderstandings happened and it was not a fun time. I fought to make my feelings known on this, though. And interestingly enough, my cousin, still a devout catholic no longer fears my work or what I do. I guess my actions speak loudly as I walk my talk in every facet of my life.

That’s not so with another cousin who is an evangelical christian and convinced that I am truly doing the work of the devil and chose a relative’s birthday party to share that feeling with me. I have a fun family, don’t I? When she accused me of trying to sway her mother because I shared information on using a pendulum, something inside me kicked in. I stood toe-to-toe with her and said “You do not want to go there with me.” If you know me at all, you’d know that it’s got to be something really major to push me to saying anything like that.

While I think I stunned her into silence at that moment, she wrote me later to continue the “discussion” and I said this in response to her: “My path is my own and is between me and God. I am the one accountable for my choices and actions. It is not subject to your judgement and I will not accept it. I will also not judge your path because it too is between you and God. Accept that we have chosen very different paths and they are equally valid for each of us.” She backed off after that which is all I wanted. I don’t need her approval or blessing to do the work of my soul.

And this brings me around to what I think is going on – it’s all about fear. Many people in their spiritual evolution need the safety of proscribed rules and regulations. Being willing to step outside of that requires a lot of trust and courage. It’s not for me (or you, for that matter) to judge where someone is on their evolutionary path. Accept that they are where they are because it makes them feel safe. I work with someone (also an Evangelical Christian) who told me she didn’t even want to think about any of this stuff because it might make her question her faith and she didn’t want to do that. How’s that for a truthful answer?

It’s okay for someone to feel fearful of stepping outside the box. It’s not okay for them to throw that fear onto others who choose to live outside that box. Don’t accept it. Stand up for what you feel in your heart. Remember it’s their fear talking, okay?

We each have self-authority – the ability to make our choices based on whatever reason we feel is valid. If someone chooses not to speak to you because you follow a certain path, that’s their decision. But don’t allow them to make you feel “less-than” because you have a different path.

I am proud of the work. I do. My life, my actions, my words all speak my faith and trust in the goodness of the Universe. If you are following your path, whatever that may be, be proud of it. You are doing the work of your soul. That’s what you’re here to do!

That’s all for this week (she said, stepping down off her soapbox!) – I’d love to hear your stories about how you’ve dealt with this in your own family or group of friends. Please leave a comment on the blog or you can email me privately if you wish.

Have a wonderful week – this is Lisa from Practically Intuitive – bye for now!

3 Comments

I haven't heard that one yet although I know other intuitives who certainly have. May have something to do with a general lack of religion and intermarriage in my family going back at least a few generations 🙂 However, I was a technical Jew going to a Catholic Girls high school once upon a time, and at least one person was deeply offended when I won the Religion Prize for Morality. Laughing my @ss off until I was introduced in the deep south once as "Jewish Julie from New Jersey" at a 7th Day Adventist church which had 7 members in a town of 105.

My point is of course that you are 100% accurate that FEAR is what is behind this. No one needs to "save" you, me or anyone else from anything. Everyone goes their own way and develops in their own time, and anyone who cares to overstep that most basic boundary simply gets a smile from me.

What a fabulous podcast! A few years back, before I had my spiritual awakening, a friend of mine asked me if I had accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. When I didn't know exactly what that meant, and said that "I was good (as far as religion went)." She couldn't accept it. The discussion continued. Eventually, I realized that for her, if a person didn't do just this, they were slated for hell. I asked her if my husband's dead mother, who had been a Buddist, was in hell because of her beliefs. The answer was yes. I told her that my husband's mother had lived a good life, treated people fairly, and had morals like anyone else, and because of this, there was no way in he!! that she was in hell. Period. End of story. Needless to say, I don't share my new spirituality with her- even my experience of seeing how Jesus healed people. (Too bad for her).

Looking forward to checking out your blog! And in the future, if anyone questions my spirituality as work of the devil, or the like, I'll remember what you've said here. Great answer.

I get this all the time. I recently unfriended a cousin who I was having a fantastic conversation with, but the moment that I said that I think it's worth people's time to study up on Buddhism, Hinduism, and other religions – she shut me down and told me that she'd pray for me. I unfriended her the next day when the sharing of bible versus started. I was raised Methodist and I consider myself a Christian, but I believe that people missed the point when they started factioning off the religions – there's so much more to religion than going to church every weekend. I've even met people who missed the boat the in the other direction – someone recently told me that I was an incarnated angel and she was my boss on the other side – that rang very false to me; but there was no need to start screaming "GET THE BEHIND ME SATAN" because she holds different beliefs that I do.

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About Me

Hi, I'm LIsa!

I help intuitives, soul-preneurs and healers expand their gifts and build a solid business so they can stop giving their gifts away for free, get the tools and strategies to reach more people and make a real impact in the world!